IN A NATION OBSESSED with baseball, basketball and American football, cricket has been like a stepchild, a non-starter, a mere question, “What is that?”
While South Asians are one of the fastest growing segments of the American population, and there are many players from former Commonwealth countries, is the sport catching on with the mainstream?
Some white commentators in the media have written about attending the World Cup matches and they have marvelled about the carnival atmosphere, the lively music and the fact that the concession stands offer chicken tikka masala and samosas along with the standard hot dogs and popcorn. But, when it comes to finding avid white fans―or fans of any colour―who are besotted with cricket or play as a pro, it is like hunting for a needle in a haystack.
Bernard Bercik, a 16-year-old cricketer, has actually left his country in search of greener pastures. A true-blue American, he left because he was not getting anywhere in his quest. He has actually done a reverse American Dream migration to the Netherlands, where he plays for The Royal Den Haag cricket club.
Bernard is of Hungarian and Irish descent; his father was a colonel in the US army once deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. His mother worked with the US navy. There is no cricket heritage in the family. “My father has never picked up a bat,” says Bernard. “My mom has never picked up a bat. They did not even know what cricket was. They just cared about what their son cared about. They were willing to do anything to make me happy.”
His obsession with cricket started when he was eight and watched a game on Willow, the American television channel for cricket. He wanted to play so badly that his mother called the local cricket club, but it was open only to members. His parents could not afford it. He was only in second grade and since the Philadelphia International Cricket Festival was going on, he attended some free cricket clinics. He got to flip the coin for the final match of the series and got a signed ball from a former international player. The tournament included clubs from the Netherlands, England, the US and Canada, and after that one lucky stroke, the boy was on his own.
The next few years were arid. “It was actually quite a challenge. They did not have a youth team and then Covid hit,” he says. His family moved to Boston and there was no cricket there at that time. At 15, he returned to Philadelphia and started finally playing with the country clubs he had tossed a coin for: “They taught me how to play and I became decent,” he says.
But it was a tough road. “Actually, I got a lot of hate for it,” he says. “I was really ostracised by my friends because I was playing cricket. They expected me to play baseball or basketball, as they saw cricket as an inferior sport.”
The cricket community where he lived was mostly Indian; he did not fit in there because he was white, and was not expected to play cricket. “One time, my parents hosted a curry party for the team, because they are all Indian except for us,” he recalls. “And the moms came to my mom, and they told her, ‘You know your son is white, right?’ And my mom said, ‘I do not understand what you are saying’. They were saying he is white, he is not a cricketer. It really, really broke my mom’s heart because she thought we were all friends. My only fear is that cricket becomes segregated by group. I do want cricket to connect all people from all different countries.”
Stars, stripes and support: Team USA fans during a match in Antigua and Barbuda | AFP
Unable to find a competitive league in Philadelphia, he went over to the Netherlands with his mother. There he had another lucky stroke―a man who repaired cricket bats hired him as his apprentice and got him into the Royal Den Haag Cricket Club. He is currently a brand ambassador for B3, a bat company. He says it was tough to move to a new continent where your language is not spoken and the sport is foreign to even the Dutch.
“It really changed me,” he says. “I do not think I would have been able to play cricket at a high level if I had not come here, and I did a full season. Then Mr Maximo (commentator) of the European cricket network invited me to come play cricket in the European Cricket Series in Gibraltar for the Pirates. There I played with some of the best players I have ever faced. Now I am in my second season in the Netherlands playing cricket, and I am working with George Samuel of the Queens United Cricket Academy in New York to find a way to get me into the US national team.”
George Samuel sounds like a mainstream name, but this George is originally from Kerala. Cricket is his passion and he started his academy seven years ago in Queens and on Long Island. “We are the one of the largest cricket academies, and produce 90 per cent of the state- to national-level players,” he says. “Players in Team USA also come to us for coaching.” He says all his clients are from former Commonwealth countries and Bernard has been the only mainstream American.
In the Netherlands, Bernard found out soon enough that cricket was taken more seriously. There, he had private training, housing and also classes in Dutch. “These kids coming out of the Netherlands, they are dedicating their whole lives to cricket, and I think they are going to become like the Aussies, like the West Indies,” he says. “The reason is that they, and their parents, like my parents, will support them for as long as they can. I am American and I want to come back home and play cricket. Hopefully I will be able to get on the US national team. My goal is to play in the 2028 Olympics.”
Does he think the US can eventually become a cricket hub for all Americans? “I think America could do it. It is just that there is a lot of hostility toward cricket. I lost everything, all of my friends―they view cricket as a weak, old man’s sport, or as an Indian or British sport.”
There are other potholes, too. There are not enough training facilities, no pitches and not enough media supporting it. Americans also want great logos, good social media teams, proper television coverage and really good uniforms.
Bernard’s uncle does not think Americans will pick up cricket because it is too complicated. Bernard disagrees; he thinks T20 and The Hundred are good for American audiences, and wants cricket to be presented and promoted in a different way. “You need covers for stadiums―you cannot have Americans sitting out there, baking in the hot sun. They will not do it.”
Samuel is also hopeful about the future of cricket, and his vision is to be inclusive and provide cricket education to all American children.
The T20 World Cup has put cricket on the radar of Americans and, given a changing country and diverse population trends, there may be many more aspiring Bernards in the future. Give it 10 to 15 years, Samuel predicts.
―Lavina Melwani is a New York-based writer who blogs at Lassi with Lavina